


things you're not ready for

by delightwrites



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Ezran needs a hug, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Sibling Love, but watch me make this scene 150 percent angstier by adding Ezran, he comes back from his talk with Claudia a bit earlier that's all the canon divergence, i do love Rayla's almost-confession really, slight au of book 2 chapter 9, there's lots of crying and hugging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:08:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25222156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delightwrites/pseuds/delightwrites
Summary: "He wants Callum to be better, to be awake, so badly, and for a selfish reason too. He wants his brother to tell him it’s alright, it’s all going to be alright. He thinks, if it was Callum who said it, maybe he could believe him.But when he gets back, Callum isn’t awake, isn’t better.He’s worse."-Ezran talks with Claudia, then rushes back to Callum and Rayla. Except, he doesn't arrive to find his brother awake and alive and doing magic. He finds him dying, with neither him or Rayla able to do anything to help him.or, the one in which Ez just learned that his father died and now he watches his brother floating between life and death(jesus christ, give this boy a hug)
Relationships: Callum & Ezran & Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Callum & Ezran (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 54





	things you're not ready for

**Author's Note:**

> don't worry, Callum's gonna be alright in the end, just like in the show! the only change is that Ez is also there  
> (i tried to use canon dialogue at most points)
> 
> -
> 
> lots of angst, lots of hugs, hope you enjoy!

“Go, Callum needs you.”

“Claudia?” He almost doesn’t dare ask, but he needs to know. Still, in this moment, he hates how little his voice sounds.

“Yes, Ezran?”

“Callum... He’s gonna be okay, right?”

Claudia bites her lip and... and she hesitates. Ez feels a cry bubble up in his throat but pushes it back down.

“He’ll have to get through this on his own, Ezran,” Claudia whispers, her voice raw and honest. There’s concern in her eyes for Ezran’s brother and for her own. A deer scoots closer and nudges the girl’s hand that’s still holding a milkfruit.

“Can you find your way back?” Claudia asks, gently.

“Don’t worry!” Ezran says. And really, he doesn’t want her to worry about him too. It’s Soren who she needs to be with right now. Like how he needs to be with Callum. “I’ve got plenty of friends to help me if I get lost.”

Claudia nods and smiles and she’s once again the girl who Ezran grew up with.

Ez smiles too and turns to hurry back to the cave where he left his friends after that Corvus guy told him that Dad-

_No_ , he cuts off his own thoughts. He knows where they would lead.

He wants Callum to be better, to be awake, so badly, and for a selfish reason too. He wants his brother to tell him it’s alright, it’s all going to be alright. He thinks, if it was Callum who said it, maybe he could believe him.

But when he gets back, Callum isn’t awake, isn’t better.

He’s worse.

Rayla kneels next to him, completely given up on looking pissed at Callum for using Dark Magic. She holds the wet rag to his forehead and is muttering something Ezran can’t quite hear. It may be curses or it may be desperate pleads.

“R-rayla?”

The elven girl jumps, she hadn’t even noticed Ezran returning. A hand slips to the hilt of her knives, face in a fierce scowl, ready to fight, to defend Callum from anything. But her expression softens as she sees Ez.

“Ez!” she exclaims. Zym yaps excitedly and Bait just groans, but Ez feels their relief. “You came back!”

In a second, Rayla is next to him, pulling him into a tight hug, maybe even without realizing what she’s doing. Ez leans into the hug.

“Ez, I’m so sorry,” Rayla whispers, muffled because she’s basically speaking into his hair. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, I’m... I’m sorry it happened at all, your dad... I’m-”

Hot tears are stinging Ezran’s eyes, threatening to spill at any moment.

There’s no avoiding the thought now. There’s no running away again, through the secret stairways of the castle or to the wilderness of a strange forest where he still, somehow, feels at home.

_When you grow up, sometimes there are changes you don’t expect, and you have to face things you’re not ready for._

Dad died.

He fell, Rayla said.

He died.

Ezran cries. He doesn’t want to cry, he wants to be angry. He wants to, but Rayla is holding him and rubbing circles into his back and even though it’s only her hushed voice, not her words, that reach him, he still finds comfort in them. He wants to be angry at Rayla, but it wasn’t her. And Rayla is a friend.

He wants to be angry at someone. Not Rayla, no. But he wants to, because his mom died before Ez got to know her and his dad is gone now too and he didn’t just fell, he didn’t just die, he was killed, he was taken from him and Callum-

Callum.

Ez pulls away from Rayla’s arms to look at his brother. Callum is pale as a ghost, the circles under his eyes darkened, sweat rolling down his forehead and tears from his eyes. Ez has seen him sick before but something in his stomach turns with worry and he realizes why he can’t run away this time, why he doesn’t have the time to be scared or angry.

“He’s gotten worse while you were gone,” Rayla says quietly. She looks tired in that moment, and as worried as Ezran.

Callum shifts in his feverish dream then, his face pained, frightened of something only he can see. Ez drops down on his knees by his side and presses the wet cloth to his forehead. The heat radiating from him scares Ezran and he thinks Callum might owe him a jerkface dance for making him so worried, but he would be willing to let it pass, just please, please, let him wake up and be better.

Rayla moves over to him, taking the rag from his hand gently and wiping Callum’s forehead with a softness anyone would be surprised to see from a Moonshadow assassin. Anyone but Ez.

“I thought you were angry at him,” he whispers. It’s not really a question, he doesn’t even know why he says it.

“Oh make no mistake, he will get a real, proper scolding for his stupid decisions once he wakes up,” Rayla says, trying to keep her voice light. The joke doesn’t land as well as it should, with fear hanging in the air above them.

There’s silence, worry-filled, awful silence, for the next minutes.

And then Callum’s breath hitches.

It’s the worst sound Ezran ever heard. But then his brother is gaping, as if he’s trying to breathe but can’t. And Ezran doesn’t understand because there’s air all around them, they aren’t even that high up the mountains. His hand moves instinctly at the same time as Rayla’s, to loosen Callum’s scarf around his neck.

It doesn’t help.

Ez’s heart drops as he sees Rayla’s eyes widen in panic and he realizes Callum is _drowning_.

“Callum!” Somebody calls out and he doesn’t even know if it’s him or Rayla. All he knows is his hand grasping his brother’s, squeezing it tightly and the tears that almost dried on his face are now spilling once again.

“Callum, wake up!” Rayla is shaking his brother by the shoulder. “You’ve got to stay with us!”

Nothing.

Callum doesn’t hear them, he can’t hear them and he _can’t breathe_ and that means-

That means he’s _dying_.

No-

“No,” Ez hears himself mutter as his brother struggles to breathe, his whole body shaking and he’s dying, dying, dying. “No no no no, Callum...”

Ezran cries and feels Rayla pull him closer and his mom died before Ez got to know her and his dad is gone and Callum is dying and Ezran can’t bear to think of being left here alone.

“Callum, please,” he chokes out between sobs. “Please, wake up... Please, you’ve got to be okay...”

Nothing. No answer.

Nothing, just the sound of hitched breaths and drowning.

“Oh Callum, please come back!” Rayla cries out, desperation rising in her voice. “It doesn’t matter what you did before, I just want you to be okay again!”

_When you grow up, sometimes there are changes you don’t expect, and you have to face things you’re not ready for._

Ez isn’t, he’s not ready for Callum dying, he’s not, he’s not, he never will be-

Rayla pulls both of them close and now they are hugging Callum and Ez can feel every weakening heartbeat of his brother. Tears blur his vision of Callum’s blue jacket and red scarf and he only faintly registers that he’s not the only one crying, but Rayla too. The three of them are a shaking, sobbing mess of bodies and Rayla is still talking to Callum when Ez’s voice has long abandoned him. He just keeps squeezing Callum’s hand and silently pleading because he’s not ready, he’s not ready, he’s not ready-

“I can’t loose you like this, you mean to much to me...” Ez hears Rayla’s voice. His free hand finds hers, his five short, tiny human fingers locking on to her four. She’s not ready either. “Callum, I... I-”

Callum gasps.

Ez’s heart skips a beat at his brother jolting awake as if struck by lightning, eyes wide open, his chest heaving as he _breathes._

Alive.

He’s alive, alive, alive-

“Oh, look, you’re awake now,” Rayla laughs nervously. “You’re even looking cheery!”

Ezran stares, the lump in his throat taking his voice, his heart in his chest too big for words anyway.

Callum is looking at the sky before tearing his eyes off it and it’s as if he sees Ez and Rayla only now. His gaze lingers on Ez and he realizes he must look like a mess, with eyes puffy and red from crying, tears still silently rolling down his cheeks, but this time from relief and happiness.

“Ezran?” Callum asks softly, with a concerned frown. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Callum, I...” he starts but his voice breaks. But his brother opens his arms as he sees his tears and Ez throws himself into his embrace, burying his face in his shoulder, hands grapsing the back of his jacket. He feels his heartbeat, strong and steady.

He doesn’t want to let go of him, ever again.

“Ez, what’s wrong?” Callum whispers again, holding him tight.

“You gave us a real scare, ya dummy,” Rayla explains and Ezran is grateful for that. “He should hold you to do that stupid dance of yours, you know?”

Ez chuckles, a tiny sob escaping his lips along it.

“It’s okay, Ez, I’m here now,” Callum says. “I’m sorry if I scared you, either of you...”

“Hey, I wasn’t scared!” Rayla protests, the nervous edge not leaving her voice.

“Callum?” Ezran pulls back a bit to look at his brother. “I... I know about Dad.”

“Oh,” Callum gulps. “Ez, I... I don’t know what to say. I wanted to tell you, but I just... couldn’t.”

Ezran nods, because he understands. Callum wasn’t ready either.

His brother pulls him closer again and Ez’s tears soak through the fabric of his jacket.

“It’s alright, Ez,” he says, stroking his back. “It’s all going to be alright.”

And Ez believes him.

“I...” Callum starts again, uncertain. “I saw him. I saw Dad, in my dream. And Mom too. They saved me... And I heard you, you and Rayla. You saved me too.”

He turns to smile at Rayla, who’s staring at them with wide eyes and pink blush covers her face. Then Ez reaches out at the same time as him and their hands grab Rayla’s to pull her closer. For a split second, Ezran fears Rayla will protest, but she lets herself be pulled down on her knees and throws her arms around the two brothers.

Ez laughs, his heart lighter.

“Don’t you ever do that again, you dumb human,” Rayla mumbles with the fake annoyance in her voice directed at Callum. But she looks at them both with fondness and Ez isn’t fooled so easily as to believe she’s actually angry.

“I won’t, promise... Don’t need to,” Callum says and is that mischief in his voice? “I have it.”

Ez frowns in confusion and sees the same on Rayla’s face too. Until Callum explains, with a chuckle.

“I understand the Sky Arcanum.”

Oh.

But before either of them could ask anything, they are interrupted by Zym, who jumps right in the middle of their pile. He yaps in excitement and licks Callum’s face, electricity crackling between the two of them.

Ezran laughs.

He laughs so hard and so loud he thinks it might reach up all the way to the sky, all the way to where Mom and Dad are watching over them. Rayla laughs too, their _friend_ , Rayla, and so does Callum, his brother who is _alive_ and _here_ \- and he’s also a mage now and Ez couldn’t be prouder. The four of them are a laughing, giggling mess of bodies, limbs and clothes tangled together with Zym’s wings and tail.

Ez doesn’t want to let go of them, ever again.

**Author's Note:**

> i needed to get this out of my system so bad. i hope you liked it though.  
> i promise i'm working on a fluffier, less angsty tdp fic as well, i just needed to write about my favourite episode a bit xdd
> 
> -
> 
> please leave kudos and comments to save my life!
> 
> -
> 
> find me on tumblr @sky-mage (previously @afuckindelighttobearound)


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